As Islam expanded, by the late 700s North Africa was claimed and the next step was the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal). Crossing the Straights of Gibraltar, Islam took what is now Spain and Portugal from the Visigoths calling it Al Andalusia. Around the time of Columbus (1492), Arab conquests had controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula which became Spain and Portugal.
Portugal did not change the names of most cities, one of which was Fatima. In 1917, three children of local shepherds had ‘Marian apparitions’ which were first challenged by the Roman Catholic Church and then declared “worthy of belief” in 1930.
The vision of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal ,was well known among Roman Catholics. Some churches assumed the name “Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church.” In all cases, “Fatima” is the name of the place—a town named by Islam well before it became Portugal.
A similar confusion happened in the USA among our citizens not familiar with a city in Texas called “Corpus Christi.”*** When the U.S. Navy “christened” a ship by naming it Corpus Christi, many complained to the Navy that it was inappropriate to name a military ship “Body of Christ!” The US Navy renamed the ship “City of Corpus Christi.”
*”West Asia” is more accurate than what has been called “The Middle East.”
**Many of the previous prophets in Islam are noted in Hebrew and Christian Literature (Old Testament and New Testament).
***A unit in the military had stopped and celebrated a Mass there during our war with Mexico.
